On Sunday night, the Oral Roberts University baseball team got behind early, and couldn’t complete the comeback falling to Florida, 5-4, in their second game at the 2023 NCAA College World Series at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.

After winning their first game on Friday and advancing in the winners’ bracket to face Florida, ORU dropped to the losers’ bracket and was set to face TCU on Tuesday.

Florida scored a pair of runs in the top of the second inning, on a two-run homer by Ty Evans, to take an early lead. The Golden Eagles responded in the bottom half of the inning with a bases loaded single by Justin Quinn that scored Holden Breeze from third.

In the top of the fourth inning, the Gators scored on a solo home run by Josh Rivera followed by a two-run shot later in the inning by Luke Heyman, and Florida took a 5-1 lead.

ORU got a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to cut Florida’s lead to two. Matt Hogan hit a ball off the left field wall that was misplayed and he circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run, with Quinn scoring ahead of him on the play.

The Golden Eagles threatened a comeback with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, as Drew Stahl hit into a fielder’s choice with bases loaded, scoring Hogan from third.

The ORU rally fell just short, as the Gators got Jacob Godman to fly out to end the game.

GAME ONE – FRIDAY

In the Golden Eagles first game at the College World Series since 1978, Blaze Brothers hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the top of the ninth and ORU rallied to defeat TCU, 6-5, on Friday afternoon.

The victory marked the Golden Eagles’ second in program history at the College World Series and their 24th in the last 25 games. ORU also set a new program record (D1-era) for wins in a season with 52.

After three scoreless frames, the Horned Frogs jumped in front first with a solo homer to right-center.

The Golden Eagles responded in the sixth as McCroskey lifted a two-run opposite-field homer to right, putting ORU in front, 2-1. McCroskey’s long ball was his 14th of the season and first since May 2.

TCU answered in the bottom half of the frame with an RBI single to even the score at 2-2.

In the eighth, the Horned Frogs loaded the bases with only one out and pushed across three runs to take a 5-2 lead.

Trailing 5-2 heading into the top of the ninth, Mac McCroskey got things going with an infield leadoff single. The redshirt senior later came around to score on an RBI single from Drew Stahl, trimming the deficit to 5-3. With two on and one out, Brothers belted a three-run shot over the left field bullpen to put the Golden Eagles back in front for good, 6-5. It was Brothers’ 12th homer of the season.

In the bottom half of the ninth, TCU threatened as they put two on with only one out but closer Cade Denton responded with a strikeout and a flyout to seal the victory for ORU.

Denton earned the win to improve to 3-1 on the season after tossing 1.2 innings of one-run baseball and striking out two. Starter Jakob Hall dealt five strong innings, allowing only two runs and striking out three.

Justin Quinn led all players with a 4-for-5 performance at the dish to extend his hitting streak to 17 games. McCroskey joined Quinn with a multi-hit performance after going 2-for-4 with a two-run homer.